Inauguration Day

It's a ghost town in Kabul. If there were tumble weeds to be had, they would be blowing through the streets. The reason for the empty streets is the inauguration imposed city lock down. Hilary and Holbrooke are in town along with a host of other dignitaries and with the heightened threat of violence this brings, they have put up road blocks and made it a national holiday. This means that our national staff have the day off but the expats were supposed to be able to come to the office. As it turns out, two of us made it through the road block searches before the decision was made for everyone to stay in the guesthouses until the road blocks lifted.

Later that morning the radio room guys told us two that they could walk us back to the guest houses when we were ready. On the walk home, I noticed that the road blocks were gone. However, we were still a) not allowed to return to the office until 2p and b) a group of us walked back to the office. Why walking was preferable to driving, I do not understand. At any rate, being able to walk outside twice in one day - which I've only done a few times since I've been here - was a good but strange experience.

In other news, since returning to Kabul from a great R&R in the states, I have moved into a different guest house. I have a much bigger room, on a second floor and I am living with colleagues - a few permanent and some just passing through. It is a vast improvement.